January 1st, 1774 – News of the Boston Tea Party, which took place two weeks earlier, reaches George Washington at Mt. Vernon.
Though Washington deplored the imposition of taxes on East India Tea, he was at first horrified to learn that a Boston rabble had gone to such extremes in seizing a shipment of tea and dumping it into the harbor.
His attitude would progress more and more toward anger, however, beginning with the passage of The Boston Port Bill by Parliament the following March. The ominous law decreed that the port of Boston be shut down until the 342 crates of East India Company tea were paid in full.
The Port Bill was just the first of many laws making up what Parliament called the Coercive Acts, purposely titled with the intent to intimidate and thus bring the American Colonists to heel.
The Americans referred to these laws as The Intolerable Acts, which included stripping Massachusetts of its founding charter; moving trials for crimes committed in America to England or any other part of the empire; and the Quartering Act, which required that the colonists house and feed British soldiers upon the order of the royal governor.
Like many colonists, Washington believed the Intolerable Acts were unconstitutional and a violation of their natural rights as British citizens. Later that summer, Washington would lead the creation and passage of the Fairfax Resolves.
